Suspension of disbelief, no more? Hyperbeam over at the World of Warcraft threads opened up an interesting post regarding the Caverns of Time Instance, specifically about an idea for an Old Felwood area instance. Felwood, prior to being corrupted by the Burning Legion (under the late Archimonde), was a patch of pristine forest that also served to be the first meeting between Illidan and Arthas.

What makes Hyperbeam's suggestion for the area instance is its claimed lack of "lorelol" - the colorful bits of content that makes parts of a story a little harder to swallow, even for the most stalwart of fans.

For the dudes in WoW, it means Blizzard's constant explanation of events in the CoT being caused partly by the Infinite Dragonflight. Another example from WoW's storyline is the Draenei's "spaceship" that crash-landed on Azeroth.

The instance's progression would have players taking on legions of demons as Arthas and Illidan duked it out, followed by the players helping a now-weakened Illidan defeat Tichondrius. In story canon, Illidan eliminates the said dread lord personally. This appears to be the bare-bones basic idea behind Hyperbeam's lorelol-free instance idea. Guys who'd like to check out the idea in full can drop over to the WoW forums (via the source elink)

The connection between the Infinite Dragonflight and the Mount Hyjal instance in World of Warcraft has been one of the numerous mysteries that WoW players have been wracking their brains over.

See, some of the quest NPCs involved in the Caverns of Time mention that the Mount Hyjal instance is one of the timeways being interfered with by the Infinite Dragonflight, who are working to stop major events in past Warcraft lore from happening. Oddly enough, not one member of the Infinite Dragonflight can be seen in the instance.

This topic has made its way to the official WoW forums, where forum members are throwing out their own takes on the instance. Blizzard poster Drysc has also come out with an official explanation, saying that the instance is some sort of "time pocket". Here's Drysc's full post (emphasis ours):

It's a "time pocket" if you will. There's no intended link to the Infinite Dragonflight or their dastardly deeds of altered timeways, and you're not literally interacting with history.

It's simply a way for players to experience some of the larger moments in Warcraft history, and admittedly the Mount Hyjal instance isn't really linked to the world for any rhyme or reason.

The timeway presented itself, it's an amazing opportunity to be there and experience such a major event, and Archimonde drops phat purples.

There you have it, folks. The Mount Hyjal instance is just something for players to enjoy. No overarching links to the whole Warcraft lore, just an instance where players can experience one of the turning points in the game's lore and get, as Drysc describes them, some phat purples.